Redacting Data

Overview

Sometimes it may be necessary for researchers to hide sensitive respondent data from users who need access to other survey data for reporting. For example, while you may want your client to be able to view the open-ended responses they've collected, you may not want vendors to have access.

Enabling Data Redaction

While data redaction is set at the record level, it must be enabled within the survey XML prior to use. To enable data redaction in your survey, add redactData="1" to the <survey> tag via the XML Editor.

Once you have enabled data redaction, you can choose to redact only respondents' open-end responses or their entire records.

Redacting Open-End Responses

To redact only the open-end response data from a record, add the "REDACT_OE" marker to that record using either the <marker> tag or the the View/Edit Responses report.

Adding REDACT_OE keeps the respondent's record visible, but hides their open-end responses. Users without data:edit permission will see "PENDING REVIEW" in place of the open-end text values.

Redacting Records

Adding REDACT completely removes the record from all counts and charts so that it is not visible to users without data:edit permission.

Viewing Redacted Data

Data redaction only applies to users without data:edit permission. Users with data:edit or higher permission will see all respondent data, regardless of marker values. Additionally, all public reports (saved reports and dashboards) will show with redaction if viewed while logged out.